World Cup: Diving Neymar meme rolls into new online game

Unless you’ve been living under a particularly large boulder atop a remote peak in the Himalayas, you’ll have noticed the 2018 FIFA World Cup is underway.

It’s also likely you’ve noticed the prevalence of diving at the tournament in Russia, and no player has drawn more criticism in this regard than Brazil’s Neymar.

The talented 26-year-old has become renowned for his theatrics on the field. Swiss broadcaster RTS reports that of Neymar’s 360 minutes of football at this year’s World Cup, he spent 14 of them lying on the ground.

Most of the time the striker spent acquainting himself with the turf was characterised by an expression of pure agony as he writhed on the ground, often mere seconds before springing to his feet and sprinting down the field, apparently unharmed.

Behold just two of the many “injuries” he sustained during Brazil’s World Cup campaign:

Following Brazil’s exit from the World Cup, the meme has rolled its way beyond the Twittersphere and into an online game called Keep Neymar Rolling, where one click of your mouse equals one full rotation for the PSG forward.

The goal? To roll Neymar all the way home from Russia to Brazil.

The game displays a handy tally so you can track your progress as well as the global total. At the time of writing, players have collectively clicked 13,192,127 times, which means Neymar has successfully rolled more than 11,992 kilometres – 103.7% of the distance from Russia to Brazil.

Great job, everyone! Pats on the back all around. But why stop now? What if Neymar wants to cruise past Brazil and take a holiday in Argentina?

Keep Neymar rolling.

But before you do, please enjoy some highlights from the #NeymarChallenge hashtag that gained traction on Twitter: